The Structure of the State

The People's Republic of China was founded in 1949. As a unitary nation of multiple ethnic groups, the People's Republic is a unitary sovereign state consisting of a number of administrative divisions, and has instituted the system of regional autonomy for ethnic minorities and the system of special administrative region in some parts of the country. The present structure of the state is stipulated in the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, the Law on Regional Autonomy for Ethnic Minorities, the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and the Basic Law of the Macao Special Administrative Region.